County: Offaly Site name: MOUNTLUCAS BOG, BALLYNAKILL/CLONARROW or RIVERLYONS/GORTEENKEEL/ISLAND/SCRUB or PIGEONPARK
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 02E0839
Author: Caitríona Moore, Irish Archaeological Wetland Unit
Site type: Excavation - miscellaneous
Period/Dating: Multi-period
ITM: E 602181m, N 683371m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 52.901199, -7.967580
Mountlucas Bog was surveyed as part of the Peatland Survey 2002 on behalf of Dúchas. The bog is c. 1km south-east of Daingean and to the east of the Daingean–Walsh Island road. It is under milled peat production operated by Bord na Móna and covers 1226ha. A single togher, recorded by the National Museum of Ireland (NMI 1972:69–73), was known from the bog before the survey. Up to 60% of this bog is now out of production and has become heavily overgrown; however, 81 sites were recorded in those areas available for survey. These sites were identified as three distinct distributions in the north-western, south-western and south-central parts of the bog. Most consisted of irregular deposits of worked and unworked wood, but three post rows and a platform were also revealed. A large number of toghers were also identified, and, although most of these traversed only very short distances, three substantial examples had recorded lengths of 167–412m. Radiocarbon and dendrochronology dates for thirteen of the sites indicate activity in the bog from the Early Bronze Age to the late medieval period, although artefactual evidence also suggests a human presence during the Neolithic.
Eight artefacts were recorded from Mountlucas during the survey, including a kite-shaped flint arrowhead, a flint flake, a struck flint pebble, leather shoe fragments, a possible wooden shaft with a rounded terminal, and an enigmatic squared wooden shaft with a rounded terminal. In addition to the finds identified by the survey, Mr Jimmy Kilmurray (Bord na Móna Bog Supervisor) presented the survey team with two saddle querns that he had recovered from the bog in recent years. Mr Kilmurray also furnished much information concerning previously undocumented finds, toghers, possible human remains and a possible house, which had been discovered in the bog since it came into production in the 1960s.
Department of Archaeology, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4
